Basilisk Born
by Jess Idres
Summary: Fate decided to alter the death of Tom Riddle, The boy who was a memory. But if Ginny and Harry survive, whose life does the diary take to resurrect the memory? AU
1. A Matter of Fate

Basilisk Born: A Matter of Fate  
  
Fate decided to alter the death of Tom Riddle, The boy who was a memory. But if Ginny   
and Harry survive, whose life does the diary take to resurrect the memory?  
  
I own none of these characters, the setting or fate. But the sick twisted imagination all   
mine.   
  
The Basilisk lunged, and Harry shoved the sword into the gaping mouth. The   
point pierced the soft flesh of the mouth, but pain lanced up his arm as one of the long   
dagger-like teeth dug into his arm.  
The basilisk let loose a long, earsplitting shriek as it danced its death throes. Both   
Harry and Tom winced inwardly, but turned their attention back to their own   
confrontation.  
If either, though, had stepped back from the situation, they would have been   
fascinated how close any of them could have easily been to being crushed by the massive   
coils sporadically lashing about the chamber. Or had they known about the influences of   
chance and luck on the situation, or even that of fate or a ambivalent deity, on the merest   
of fractions, they would have set down their weapons and watched where the snake   
would come to rest.  
As it were, Tom Riddle was too busy watching in hatred down the length of   
Harry's wand as the boy in front of him was miraculously healed by phoenix tears. Harry   
Potter was too busy being healed and fighting the effects of basilisk venom. Fawkes was   
too busy healing (for a bit longer than he should have, but that seem inconsequential at   
the time). Ginny Weasley was too busy lying in a coma at the feet of Salazar Slytherin   
due to the drain of life by the diary. The diary, moved around earlier by the tail of the   
blind basilisk, simply lay as a conduit for Tom Riddle, soaking up the easiest life source-   
which, at the time, had been Ginny's.  
But, oh, that was about to change.  
Remember fate? Well, it seemed that fate had seen this scenario play out before,   
and was quite bored with it. It was time for this repetition of history would go a little bit   
different- or a lot different, depending on your view. In the matter of what fate changed,   
it was so miniscule it seemed pointless.  
It just moved the diary three inches left, and the basilisk final resting place a foot   
forward.  
The head of the basilisk fell on the open diary with a resounding bang. The   
diary's spine was crushed, and the venom ate into the pages. The lifeblood of the   
immortal monster gushed into the flattened diary.  
Tom dropped to his knees as his life house fell under the dying beast, grasping his   
head as pain shot through his body. It was obviously the end for him. Without the diary,   
the body he had worked so hard to create with the little girl's life force would disappear,   
taking his existence with it.  
Harry watched on in sick fascination as the boy had been a memory mimicked the   
death throes of his giant pet. But his attention was wrenched away as the once near death   
girl next to him shot up, very much alive. She opened her mouth to say something, but   
fell silent as she was drawn to the writhing sight in front of them. She sucked in her   
breath in horror and buried her head in Harry's robe.  
Slowly it dawned on Harry that something wasn't right. If Ginny was   
reawakened, her life was out of the diary's clutches. But Tom was still visible in front of   
them, as clearly defined as any living person. Slowly the elder boy's convulsions died   
away, and he collapsed with a wet smack onto the cold floor. The wand skittered out of   
the limp hand, resting a mere foot away from where they sat dumbstruck.  
Cautiously Harry stood, and picked up his wand, never taking his eyes off the   
limp body. Was he dead? No, despite the lack of movement, the chest rose and fell   
every few seconds, albeit raggedly. Harry peered closer, attempting to catch a sign of   
how the past of Voldemort had survived.  
Suddenly Tom turned his head to stare at his nemesis, but the movement seemed   
to be too much for him, and he again went limp in a dead faint. But in that brief moment,   
Harry found the answer he was looking for. Tom's left eye was not the green-red cold   
orb as the right one had; it was yellow and elliptical, with a transparent film clouding it.   
It looked like the giant ruined eyes of the basilisk must have looked before Fawkes's   
attack.  
The pieces fell into place. The diary had brought Tom to life with basilisk's   
death.  
Ginny crept over and nudged her former captor with a foot. The rocking   
sensation turned his head, and she squeaked, jumping back. She looked to Harry and   
then pointed at the neck of Riddle. There were miniature scales starting under his ears,   
growing larger before disappearing under his collar. "He's…he's like a snake, Harry!"  
Harry wanted to responded, but a low rumble spoke before him. Dust and pebbles   
began to rain down on all of them. Harry squinted up at the ceiling in time to dodge a   
larger stone as it crashed to the ground. "The chamber is collapsing! We've got to get out   
of here!" And he began to head for the exit.  
Ginny went to follow and stopped. "Harry!" She turned to look at the   
unconscious boy beside her. "What about him? We can't just leave him! It'd   
be…murder…"  
Harry hesitated. She was right. He sighed, and waved his wand. "Mobilius   
Corpus!" The limp body rose, and Harry and Ginny ran out of the chamber, Riddle in   
tow. 


	2. Aftershocks

Chapter: Aftershocks. ----------- Harry and Company are out of the Chamber. But now, what do they do with Tom Riddle, barely alive and infused with the life force of the basilisk?  
  
It was a flurry of excitement when Fawkes landed them all at the main doors of Hogwarts. Ginny was whisked away into the arms of her parents and far away from the prone body of her former captor. Ron and Harry were led to Dumbledore's office for the explanation of the events. Lockhart was taken away by orderlies of St. Mungo's.  
The unconscious body of Tom Riddle, limp and unmoving, except for the occasional rise and fall of the chest, was almost forgotten on the wet lawn. Only when the rest of the crowd had cleared did Filch and Madame Pomfrey strapped the slack body on a gurney and cart him away.  
  
It was two days later that the repercussions of the Chamber. Harry, Ron, and the recently released Hermione and Ginny were discussing what had gone one in the past eventful week, when an unearthly shriek ripped down the hallway. Ron and Hermione covered their ears and tried to block the sound out, but for Harry, it sounded like someone screaming "No!" at the top of their lungs. And it came from the Hospital Wing.  
"Did you hear that?" Harry looked back towards his friends. Ron looked at him as if he had lost his mind, and Hermione shook her head vehemently. But Ginny gave him a look that said she had heard the meaning in the scream.  
She bit her lip and shifted her eyes down the hall to the door of the hospital wing. "It sounded like someone saying 'No'." But when she met their gaze again, Harry understood her nervousness. She knew that voice, and that meant only one thing. It was Tom Riddle.  
Madame Pomfrey suddenly rushed out the door, obviously harried. She saw Harry and her face visibly relaxed. "Harry? Harry, thank goodness, maybe you can help. We seem to be having some problems with." She shifted her eyes, obviously unsure what to call her most recent patient.  
Harry nodded knowingly and followed Pomfrey into the wing. Ron and Hermione followed, but a tad bit slower than their compatriot. No one noticed Ginny hesitate, then slip in and hide behind one of the folding screens. She watched, trying not to let anyone know that she could understand the hissing that came from the other side of the hall.  
She almost left her spot when she got a glimpse of the Boy who had been a memory. He wasn't at all like the deceptive-looking prefect she had met in the diary. His calm demeanor was completely gone, as he fought against the large straps that held him down. His hair was in disarray, and the unkempt pants he wore now were nothing like the clean visage she had learned to fear. He looked like a caged wild animal. And, she amended, he was, from what she a gleaned from Harry. Both eyes were now yellowish green, the black slit pupils standing out against them. Occasionally one set of eyelids would blink, like a shark or a dragon's (as Charlie had taught her), mostly transparent, to moisten the eyes. They didn't seem to be dangerous like the basilisk's had been though, only instilling a momentary pause if they caught you, and that was more for shock than petrifaction. More scales had appeared since she had seen him last; now, they were grouped in large stripes. She could see one set start at his shoulders and cover the top of his arms down to the claw-like nails, and there also appeared to be one or two very large stripes that went from the back of his ears down his back, although she couldn't see.  
But what was most startling to her was he change in tone. It seemed like he could only hiss, making for very odd indignant screams of protest. His tongue was not quite a snake's, but it looked too thin to be human as it darted in and out betwixt his lips. But the worst was despite her hearing the hissing, she could hear what he was saying. His imprint on her mind had left her able to understand snakes.  
Tom, however, knew none of this. He had caught sight of Harry, and turned to him to stare with his odd snake eyes. "What did you do to me? Why won't anyone listen to me?! Answer me!"  
The harsh hiss surprised the younger boy and he stepped back. Concentrating, he hissed back. "Uh, Tom, you do know you're hissing? They think." Harry paused, unsure how to tell the elder boy, his nemesis incarnate, the news. "The basilisk's blood soaked your diary. It took the life of basilisk and used it to make you real. But, well, the spell wasn't really meant."  
".For anything besides human." Tom hissed spitefully. He looked at his hands as if noticing the scales and claws for the first time. "I created the spell, remember?" He grimaced at his own hiss, flashing teeth that were blunted versions of the basilisk's. "Why can't I stop hissing? ARGH!"  
Harry scratched his head. "Well." he looked to the door, but failed to noticed Ginny duck further behind the screen. "Ginny understood your.outburst in the hallway. Maybe you left something in Ginny..what how fast the diary stopped draining her and taking in the basilisk."  
Tom scowled again. Harry frowned back, all the anger from the Chamber coming again. "Look, you nearly killed her. Don't expect to get any sympathy around here. Who knows what they'll do with you now. They'll probably send you to Azkaban." And with that, Harry motioned to Ron and Hermione, and walked back out of the Hospital Wing, leaving Tom Riddle to ponder his own fate.  
  
In the corner, Ginny watched, unsure what to do now. She wanted to follow Harry out, but she knew that any movement she made now, Tom would see. She would have to face him, and now, she would have to do it alone. 


	3. A meeting of former confidants

            She sat there for nearly an hour, her palms sweaty against the rail of the bed she sat on.  He probably would never notice her, not now, his head turned away and he deep in thought.  If she could just step away, turn from that monstrosity, she could sneak away and ignore that he was still alive.  He would go away and she'd be free.

            But it still took her a very long time to turn away from the sight of what he had become.  Mum always did say she had a morbid sense of curiosity.  After all of his telling her how she would die and he would arise again, using her like a little rag doll; to see him so helpless was strangely…anticlimactic.  But she pushed any feeling away and turned to the door, hands clenched, ready to leave this horror behind.

            "Ginny?"

            She had been concentrating so hard that when she turned to face him, she still wore a frown and a knitted brow.  She was so taken up with her project of slipping out the door she didn't even remember who it was.  "What?" She said, an impatient tone underlying the short staccato of the word.

            Tom drew back slightly in surprise, and she could read a look of slight confusion on his strange features.  It was enough to negate her fear at the sudden realization of who exactly she was talking to.  She suddenly felt a bit better.  "Well?"  She cocked an eyebrow, confidence seeping into the void that had echoed there for so long.  The void he created.

            He regained his composure quickly, mild shock replaced with a scowl.  "Potter was right.  Damn."  He muttered, his eyes looking with vague hatred at the dragon-hide straps on his wrists.  Ginny snorted quietly, and the gaze returned to bore into her.

            But she was no longer his little rag doll, easily cowered by a single stare from red (now yellow) -green eyes.  She held his gaze, and walked forward.  He watched her with an acidic glare until she got right up next to him, proving both to herself and to him that she wasn't going to lose her control.  Seeing her stand there with her hands on her hips, meeting his gaze toe to toe, Tom couldn't help but let slip, "Wonderful, Ginny.  I suppose for your next trick you'll actually talk to Harry Potter?"

            That was more than enough out of him, at least for Ginny.

            The slap was more shocking than it was painful, but it stung nonetheless.  She shook her hand lightly to get rid on the tingle that raced across her palm, admiring the angry red mark now across his cheek.  He kept his face turned away for a moment, staring at the floor in shock, as if to give her a better view.  She let the corners of her mouth turn upwards in the growing feeling of satisfaction. 

            When he did turn back at her, Ginny noted that his eyes were a mix of shock and disbelief…and a something that almost looked like respect. But anything he would have said was cut off by Madame Pomfrey hurrying back through the doors.

            "Harry?  Oh, dear."  She suddenly noticed the first year looking at her quizzically.  "Oh!  Ginny, did you see where Harry went?  He's the only one who can understand what he," she nodded to Tom, "says…."

            "I can understand him.  What do you need?"

            Madame Pomfrey blinked, quite unsure of what she had just heard.  "You…understand him, dear?  Do you mind relaying to me what he says?"

            Ginny smiled slightly and shook her head.  "Not at all."

            Tom looked at her suspiciously.  Why would she want to help anybody with him, anyhow?  He unconsciously scooted a little farther away from her, afraid of revenge he expected from her.

            Ginny noticed this and glared at him.  "I just don't want to hear that god awful shrieking anymore.  I'm not you, anyhow.  I don't do the revenge stuff."  

            Oh.  Tom glared back at her, wishing he actually could petrify her. 

            Madame Pomfrey clasped her hands together.  "So you can speak to him!  Wonderful!  But oh, I can't keep you here for long, you no doubt have class and such things…"

            Ginny frowned, wondering if they couldn't cast some language spell….  Stupid Tom and his stupid diary making life miserable for everyone- Wait, the diary!  She glance back at Tom, who blinked rapidly, as if his eyes had suddenly gone dry.  "You can still write, can't you?  And you understand what people have been saying to you, right?"  He clearly thought she was daft, but nodded slowly to both questions.

            She turned back to Madame Pomfrey, a slight smile showing in satisfaction.  "Why don't you have Tom write down any answers you need?  He knows English, but he just can't speak it."

            Madame smiled for a moment, but then a frown crept back onto her features.  "But that would mean we'd need to take off the restraints."

            "You could magically lock the restraints on his torso and legs, and keep a wand away from him.  You can ask Dumbledore first, but I'm pretty sure even Tom can't do magic without a wand."

            The elder woman smiled again.  "I think I will.  Ginny, would you look after him for a moment while I go find Professor Dumbledore?"  And with that, the nurse walked through the double doors to the hallway.

            Tom was too busy trying to register Ginny's behavior to even try and hide the odd looks he was giving her.  If one was forced to describe, it was a cross between frightened confusion, and a look one would give to someone they suspected of lunacy.

            "Oh, knock it off, Riddle.  You look like you swallowed a snake."  She bit back a giggle. "Well, actually you did, but still."

            Tom glared again at the younger girl.  "Why aren't you more upset at me, anyhow?  I seem to remember quite a few nasty little words from you when I dragged you down to the Chamber."  He blinked his inner-eyelids, and regained some of his former self's composure.

            "When I first came in here, Tom, yes, I was frightened of you.  But you've lost everything, now, haven't you?  You didn't win, and you're not even human.  And most importantly?  I'm not your puppet.  I'm the one in control now."  She leaned against his bed, and cocked her head to the side, her eyes never wavering from him.  "But I'm not like you Tom.  I'm your opposite, and will always-I made a promise to myself down there, y'know.  And that means I'm not going to play your little mind games or grind you under my sole.  You're doing that perfectly fine yourself, anyhow."

            "Thank you, Miss Weasley.  You are the epitome of knowledge."  He looked away from her gaze then, slightly uncomfortable.

            She smiled, decided to take the compliment face on, and chose to ignore the sarcastic drip to it.  "I try, Tom.  I try."


End file.
